Resilient
by castor442
Summary: In the aftermath of Lily's death, Elijah gives Damon some invaluable advice. "We don't need anyone baby brother. We've got each other. We'll be just fine"


**_"What do you want? An apology? Ain't gonna happen. I'm only here because Stefan's a mama's boy and I don't want the silent treatment for the next century" - Damon to Lily S7ep8_  
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* * *

The silence in the room was only broken by the light sniffles that were trying and failing to be muffled. As a matter of fact, Bonnie and Alaric couldn't even hear the sniffles, being human and all. Damon stood nursing a glass of bourbon at the bar while trying to look like the muffled sobs from upstairs was not affecting him.

"He'll come around. Eventually" Elijah said. " I remember the time when Mikael killed Niklaus horse in anger because he had just missed us. He moped around for months after that. He wouldn't speak, he wouldn't feed and on a few occasions I saw him cry"

"I did love that stallion" Klaus interrupted. "I was angry at everything and everyone for a long time. Stefan is going to be the same, even worse. Your mother was no horse"

Damon downed the bourbon. "He'll understand. He wanted Julian dead, I wanted Lily gone, they were linked, it was supposed to be a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone thing"

"But Julian's not quite dead, is he?" Klaus asked with a hint of a smirk dancing on his lips

"No he's not" Damon answered, pouring himself another glass. "Bastard unlinked himself from Lily without telling her and tried to make her choose between Valerie and me"

"Ah, Valerie. Stefan's first love who was going to give him a baby. I can't imagine Stefan as a father. He was little more than a child himself at that time I don't think he would have been able to..."

"Be very careful what comes out of your mouth next Klaus or..."

"... Or what?" Klaus sneered, standing toe to toe with Damon.

"Niklaus that is enough" Elijah stepped in. Klaus huffed, took one of the bourbon bottles and went to sulk outside. "Niklaus had had that stallion since it was a mere foal. He took care of it from its infancy till it was killed and he was attached to it. He didn't lose the horse only to find it some years later and fight for its affection again, finally get it and then lose it again. Stefan hasn't had a mother since he was ten so he was more likely to forgive her after she returned, even after the many instances she chose her new family over you. And just when they were starting to form a new bond she died. Right now he's devastated and the heightened vampire emotions are not helping. Forget the hundred and sixty something years he's been alive. At this moment he's nothing but a frightened boy who has lost the only parental figure he's had in the last couple of days"

Damon scoffed. "Lily tried to kill us, and she hasn't been around for forever. She is no parental figure. I have looked after Stefan since he was a toddler. Even my father can't boast of having any parental influence on Stefan"

"Good. That means it won't be awkward at all when you step back into that position. Because what Stefan needs right now is a combination of father, mother and big brother"

Damon threw back another glass of bourbon and nodded. "I'll handle it"

"You'll do more than handle Damon. When Niklaus lost his beloved horse, I made the mistake of treating him the way I always did-as someone who could deal on his own. That was a grave mistake and I regret that decision every waking day. I treated Klaus as a friend, an equal, when what he needed was his big brother. I gave him a speech and a pat on the shoulder when what he yearned for was a hug and a listening ear. I watched my brother stifle his emotions and learn how to keep a perfectly blank facade. I watched that one event I mishandled play a main role in molding him into what you all see on a daily basis. I have been with him long enough to know its only a mask but most people take one look at him and see a psychopath. Now I'm not saying Niklaus is a saint. Far from that, no. I'm saying that one event played a very major factor in making him who he is today. And the fact that I read him wrongly, and didn't do what should have been done as a big brother, haunts me every day. Sometimes we are so caught up in the magic of our existence that we forget the science of it. Our bodies literally stop moving forward when we become vampires, nature's way of saying _you've found a way to live for a really really long time but you'll be doing that living stuck this way_. We freeze after our transition. We live long but we don't grow. We gain experience but we don't mature" Elijah paused, then smiled with a nostalgic look on his face. "He was born in the summer, Niklaus, on a beautiful day. Back then there were no calendars. Now, we would say he was coming up to his twenty fifth birthday when we were turned. A bonafied adult now, but back then he was little more than a boy. We still lived at home and looked after the animals. He didn't know women yet. He was still innocent. Even after we turned, after he took his first human life, he maintained his innocence. It was still alive in him while our father was chasing us across the globe. He looked up to me and Finn for direction and actually listened to us when we made rules and gave instructions. He was a sweet boy. And then Mikael came and sliced off the head of his favourite thing. We left quickly after that, the last thing he saw being the soulless eyes of the dead stallion staring back at him. There wasn't any time to even play at burying it. We had split up to meet at a later venue, Finn took Kol and Rebekah, and it was up to me to drag Niklaus away from the cold lifeless body of his horse, practically throwing him over my shoulder to get him to leave. He mourned the horse, cried about the fact that he couldn't bury it, that he would never see it again, that it was truly gone. After a pat on the shoulder and a handkerchief didn't seem to solve anything, I made the greatest mistake of my big brother duties and told him that **_it was just a horse Niklaus. I'll get you another._** He was barely adult, looking to me for comfort, and that was what his big brother had to say as consolation. Can you imagine what he would have felt?" Elijah breathed. It was not a good memory. But Damon needed to hear it so as not to make the same mistakes he did. "He looked right at me, shock evident on his face, then I saw his facial expression physically changing before my eyes into a blank façade, before he smiled and said **_of course brother, you're right. It was just a horse_**. I knew then, immediately, that I had made a grave mistake. I tried to do something, say something, anything, but by the time my brain caught up with my mouth, he had disappeared into the forest. I presented him with a foal the next day, midnight black, like his first stallion. I found it two hours later murdered so brutally I actually cried. I tried again on two different occasions but they also met the same fate. And Niklaus himself changed overnight. I couldn't explain it. He smiled, but instead of the warmth I was used to, this time it sent chills down my spine. He would bring home a different woman each night, and them eat them the next day. He burnt all his favourite paintings. It was like..."

"... He didn't want to get attached to anything" Damon finished

Elijah nodded. "Yes. But I digress. What I'm saying is, if you deal with this as abysmally as I did, it would be so much worse for you. Niklaus made me see my mistake by detaching himself from everything he loved, so that no one could get to him through any of them. With raging teen hormones and heightened vampire emotions, Stefan is going to be..."

"... Much worse. I know Elijah. I told you, I'll handle it"

"I think you should take this more seriously Damon" Bonnie said, speaking for the first time. "He has a point. With all these heretics running around, we don't have time to deal with ripper Stefan now"

"Ripper? I think we are blowing this way out if proportion Bon. Lily died. Doesn't mean Stefan is going to ..."

"You were seventeen Damon" Bonnie interrupted. "You were old enough to comprehend and deal with Lily's death. Stefan was just a child, and his mummy just left him. You told me Lily never recovered fully from Stefan's birth. She was there but she wasn't. She was never strong enough to care for Stefan like she did you. He hasn't felt a mothers love since he was an infant and he longed for it. He wanted to be a part of her life again even when she made it clear she had moved on. And you think her death would not affect him?" Bonnie questioned. "He's going to shut off his humanity Damon" she stated firmly at the blank look on his face. "And that is synonymous to ripper fest"

Damon put down the half empty glass of bourbon halfway to his lips, a contemplative look on his face. "You got anything you want say too Ric?" he asked the quiet teacher

Alaric shrugged. "No. I'll just say the same thing in different words and I think you've already got it. You can handle it from here" he said as he stood up to leave. "Come on Bonnie, I'll drop you off"

With a small nod in his direction, Bonnie disappeared out the door with Alaric. Elijah watched them leave before grabbing his and Klaus' coats, the latter leaving his behind in his sulking moment. "We will also be leaving Mr Salvatore. Family drama to take care of"

"See you never, Elijah" Damon muttered without turning around.

Elijah chuckled lightly. "We will meet again Damon, though I don't wish it. But we are connected in ways I do not understand. Take care of yourselves" he said as he also moved to leave. He paused at the door and threw over his shoulder. "Julian may be older and stronger Damon, but you handled yourself well against us, you'll be fine. You're stronger than you know" And then he was gone.

Damon scoffed. "Pfft. Handled myself well? I totally kicked your righteous original asses **"  
**

* * *

Elijah pulled the black jeep to a stop beside his still sulking little brother. "Come on Niklaus, we need to get going"

Klaus took another swig from the almost empty bourbon bottle. He sighed. "It wasn't your fault, you know. It **_was_** just a horse Elijah, and I was being a whiny brat about it"

Elijah smiled at him. Of course he had been listening. He opened his mouth to say something, only for Klaus to breeze past him. "I just wanted you to know it wasn't your fault. My actions are mine alone and not yours to bear. If you don't mind, I'd like to lie down in the back" Klaus said without making eye contact. He then opened the back and sprawled out on the seat, eyes closed as he relaxed into sleep.

Elijah cast one last look at his youngest surviving brother in the mirror and gave another smile before driving out off the Salvatore driveway. **  
**

* * *

Damon stood where Elijah had left him, still nursing the half glass of bourbon, several hours later. The sniffling coming from upstairs had stopped a- he looked towards the windows and saw it was dark outside- couple of hours ago, it seemed. He hadn't heard Stefan come down or leave the house. That meant he hadn't eaten yet. Damon scoffed at himself as he thought up excuses to go to Stefan's room. His baby brother was a vampire. He could go days, sometimes weeks, without blood before dessication even set in but it would give him a reason to be up there so yea, he was sending him food. He filled up a mug with blood and trudged up the stairs to Stefan's room. He found him sprawled across the bed in a deep sleep. After the amount of crying and emotional roller coaster he had gone through in just a couple of hours, he deserved some peace and Damon was loathe to wake him but it was necessary. He put the mug in the bedside table and gently shook Stefan awake.

Stefan opened tear crusted lids to stare into his older brothers ice blue eyes. He narrowed his eyes in irritation and turned the opposite way. Damon had treated their mother's death with nonchalance. He wouldn't even forgive the woman when she had just seconds left, he had nothing to say to him.

Damon sighed. "Stefan, come on, I brought you some blood" he tried to coax

"Go away" Stefan mumbled. He knew it was juvenile, and he was supposed to sound more mature than that, but he just didn't care.

Damon sighed again. "Stefan, we need to talk about Lily" No reaction. "I know you're upset..."

"Upset?" Stefan asked coldly, Damon finally getting some reaction out of him. "She was our mother Damon. How could you just not care?"

"She left Stefan. She faked her death and she left us"

"So? She came back. She came back and you wouldn't forgive her" Stefan choked on a sob, his eyes rapidly filling with tears. "She came back" he whispered. "You had her once. She tucked you in and told you stories and kissed your bruises. I never had that Damon. I wanted to feel that too"

"Lily..."

"She was our mother, Damon. You call her by the right name"

Damon sighed in slight frustration. " ** _Mother_** never got better after you were born. It was a difficult birth and it left her very frail. She had to be in bed a lot of the time. She wasn't there for you then and I understand that. But she became a vampire and created a whole new family, forgetting about us, about you. That I don't understand and don't forgive"

"You're pissed because she left me? I forgave her Damon. Shouldn't that be enough? It's my life..." Stefan trailed off, sobs wracking his body. "I miss her brother" he admitted softly. "She was going to come live with us, be our mother again, after Julian was killed"

Damon swept his little brother into his arms. "It's okay Stefan. We're going to be fine. We've been doing fine for over a century and a half. We don't need a mother"

"You're wrong" Stefan choked out, hands wrapped tightly around Damon's neck as he tried to control his breathing. In the back of his mind he remembered he was supposed to be mad at Damon, but that thought quickly disappeared. "I need her" he sobbed

Damon disentangled himself from Stefan for a moment. He stared into his eyes and said, "You don't need anyone Stef. You've got me. An awesome big brother to save you from the big bad things that go bump at night and buy you the most expensive cars and the best designer clothes and even compel you a girl if you wanted". Stefan gave a watery chuckle at that, and Damon pulled him back into a hug. "We don't need anyone baby brother. We've got each other. We'll be just fine" **  
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**_Okay, this was at least good in the beginning but past the halfway mark not so much and I know. I blame it on 8 hours of sleep in the last three days. I just couldn't get the idea out of my head after watching that episode. So please be gentle._**


End file.
